Sunday, May 10, 2015

Update on the snow storm

The snow finally got the ground white last night about 9 PM.  The wind never got to the 55 MPH.  and we missed the heavy snow.  This morning it was still snowing and had accumulated  4 inches.  Ryan over at the ridge place thought he had 6 inches of snow.  The temperature only got down to 31 degrees. Since this weather began last Monday we have over 2 inches of rain.

Our lilacs have been slow blooming and with being dry like we were the blooms were never very robust.  Don't think the blooms will be hurt too bad.


The ewes and lambs all spent the night in the two barns so every body came out good.  They were not very enthused about leaving the barn this morning because it was still wet and snowing with a 25 MPH wind.
I plowed the snow to clear a place to put hay.  That way the sheep don't trample their hay into the snow and mud. It takes a little more time to feed but it is worth the extra time.


There is a big pile of snow and old hay at the far end of the sheep that are feeding.


I guess I won't be grilling steak for Mother's Day.  maybe next week.

Saturday, May 9, 2015

Just went through one of driest January thru April periods on record.  Then Monday May 4 we received 0.30" of rain.  Then Wednesday morning we got another 0.10".  Then the sun came out about noon and we were able to get the yearling heifers in from the feedlot.  The trucker was afraid of getting stuck, but he made it.


Got the heifers headed into their new pasture and about an hour later the rain clouds moved in and dropped and inch of rain.  We were out checking the cows and new calves when it hit.  We both got pretty wet before we got home.

Then Friday although we were under a winter storm watch Ryan branded his calves.  The day was warm and sunny.  He needed his calves branded so he could turn his cows out into a bigger pasture so he could quit feeding hay.  We haven't fed hay to our cows here since April 20.





After the branding we came home to start getting ready for the coming storm.  Saturday morning came with a light misty rain and a light east wind.  We got all the bunches of sheep, there are six different bunches, fed and then moved some around to crowd every one into a shed for the evening.  We are supposed to get from 12 to 17 inches of snow along with a 50-60 MPH wind.

We went out to get the last bunch that has lambs that are 2 months old.  They have been far out into the pasture.


This Tammy dressed to go after this last bunch of sheep.  This is the before picture.


This picture was taken 20 minutes later.  I call it the after picture.  We had just started gathering the ewes and lambs to take back to the barn.


There wasn't much wind so the snow was just falling down and melting as the flakes hit the ground.
When we got to the corral their hay was ready.  The corral is muddy, but all the ewes and lambs should be able to get in the barn if they want to.  Even in wet yucky weather there is still time to play king of the mountain.